New York Times, Monday, June 22, 2020

Hey, Crossworld! I'm an MD/PhD student based in St. Louis, MO, and I've been constructing crossword puzzles for some time now. Last year, I started an indie crossword site, Sid's Grids, where I post puzzles for free — please give it a look! I construct with love for the art of crosswords and for puzzle people.

The motivation for this Times puzzle's theme arose not only from recognizing that ESCAPEE phonetically describes a string of letters but also from the ability to write a nonstandard revealer clue that hints at those letters "hiding" in the theme entries. Early-week revealers rarely do this sort of double duty, so I thought this was a cool find. I initially aimed for Tuesday-level fill and clues, given the easy theme. Will thought the puzzle was clean enough for a Monday, which I take as a compliment! I'm proud to follow the early-week constructing philosophy of Joel Fagliano with this 74-word grid.

When feasible, I like to try stacking themers. There are some drawbacks: the themers arrive in pairs rather than separately, altering the theme's pacing, and stacking letters can result in unsightly crossing fill. But when it works, the advantages are apparent: it's usually possible to include juicy long Acrosses since several rows in the grid are unconstrained by theme letters, and working in Down bonuses is often easier as well since each pair of stacked themers can be treated as one long entry. After some trial and error, I found this grid pattern that enabled stellar Down fill at 3D, 18D, 22D, and 31D. With those bonuses locked in place, I filled the rest of the grid, deploying "cheater" squares as needed to keep everything clean.

I'm grateful to the editing team for tightening up the clues and finding a brilliant angle for PRAYER BOOK. Among the clues that made the cut, my favorites are the ones for OXEN, DESK PHONES, and ANKLET — I represent South Asian culture in my puzzles when possible. I'm also glad that the clues for STARR / FEB recognize Black lives and culture.

Hope you enjoy the puzzle!

I love it when a constructor does so much so right. I love it even more when said constructor does that while making their debut. Makes me go yodel from my rooftop that someone gets it!

(My neighbors hate when I do that.)

I looked into this theme a few months back, initially getting excited when I found JAMES K POLK, RISK PREMIUM, ASK PRICE, and best of all, FACEMASK PENALTY. I ended up junking it, muttering curses at Crucivera, the goddess of crosswords, for her cruciverbal cruelty. Lengths of 10, 11, 8, 15, 8 (ESCAPEES) — not even mirror symmetry could save that. I scraped up DESK PHONES and MUSK PERFUME to create symmetry, but that felt desperate.

How wrong I was. I did still think DESK PHONES was boring today, but it was easy to shrug off with so much else to love.

Newer constructors should study this grid; three points in particular:

1. Long downs. For a theme that isn't ultra-dense, you can almost always weave in four long downs, making all of them fantastic.
2. No gluey entries. So many constructors get tempted, lowering their standards so they can work in that one flashy long entry. Don't do it! If you have a strong word list, there will usually be tons of options for your long bonuses that still allow you to cleanly fill the rest of the puzzle.
3. Helper squares. Sid used six of them (the black square after HOOP, for example), which is on the high side, but who cares? (Note: some editors do.) They facilitate better fill, making for a better solving experience. Six of them do look a bit unsightly, but that's minor when considering what an elegant product they enabled.

Extremely well done, Sid. We'll be keeping our eyes open for more of your products.